Curious Lola

Queen Bee

Every now and then, I pull together a project just because it sounds like a good idea (among other totally practical and business boss-like reasons (cough)). Only later can I actually put my finger on why it is so special to me.

This feature, is one of those. Introducing our Queen Bee wedding photo shoot about a regal, singular, badass bee siting atop her throne of flowers.

It’s all part of our new DIY series that starts with an inspiration shoot, and continues with a series of how-to videos about various creations featured in the shoot. For this shoot, we will be showing you how to make:

A modern pollen bouquet (okay they’re billy balls)

An impressive (and eco-conscious) flower wall throne- yes, it’s a wall, not really an actual throne. See how awesome that is?!

And a pollen crown….. because well, we can all use a new type of flower crown. And it’s a good thing because this queen bee bride eats bohemian vibes for second breakfast. She just pierces them on the end of her sharp little nail….. Doesn’t even blink… just gobbled on up.

We’ll add the links as they get finished up! But if you sign up to our newsletter, you get the videos in advance- plus bonus info about blunders and triumphs related to business, flower recipes, and more.

But for now, a story about bees.

If you didn’t already know, my parents owned a lavender farm. On that farm was rows of lavender, and among those rows were bee hives tended by a local beekeeper. Now, bees love flowers, but they especially love lavender and all purple flowers for that matter. Their visual spectrum of light is such that they can see ultraviolet light beyond the violet that we can see. It’s this type of light they are most drawn too. The point is, during peak flowering season, the fields are awash with bees partying on their favorite food. Literally hundreds of bees thumping drunkenly into your head, and crawling all over every bush. Harvesting one bunch of lavender can yield 15 bees in your hand.

The bees are so drunk on pollen that you can simply brush them off. They will lazily plop off and zoom over to another bush. In years of helping with lavender harvest, I’ve never been stung by these bees. Not once.

I loved that a being so feared in childhood could be so docile when given what it wants.

What’s more amazing, however, is the sheer level of noise they can produce. Sitting between rows of lavender at peak season will bring you to a secret world where all sound is lost but buzz and the only thing that is important is the work of the bees. Feed the queen, feed the family, take care of each other, everybody do their part- that is the work of bees.

This is also where I first heard of colony collapse disorder from our beekeeper who was losing half his queens.

In colony collapse, for a number of reasons about which researchers can’t seem to agree, the worker daughters leave the hive and disappear, leaving the community to starve. There’s been a lot of research since my initial introduction to colony collapse but the beekeeper was convinced it was because of selective bee breeding.

Honeybees had been bred to be good workers and docile. When all the bees (or anything for that matter) have a similar genetic makeup, they are susceptible to the same infections and diseases. Yet another reason to celebrate diversity.

At the time, our beekeeper was seeking out new queens from far off places that were feistier, fiercer, and hopefully with that, better at fighting off disease.

This shoot is dedicated to those fiesty queens keeping their family together:)

Oh! Thanks for reading all the way through. Here are our friendors who were crucial to this shoot!